In Matthew’s gospel (chapter 16: 13-20) Jesus wants to know, “who do people say is the son of man?” All through the gospels he refers to himself as the “son of man”. Now he’s been preaching throughout Galilee, where he’s known as the guy from Nazareth. In other words, when he asks, “who do people say I am?” he wants to know, do they still see me as the kid from Nazareth of someone else after all my preaching and medical interventions? The answer Jesus gets is somewhat complex and often does not compute with our understanding as to Jesus’ true identity. In most instances Jesus referred to himself as the “son of man” which is an interesting title as he seems to perceive himself as more human than divine. It is certain that over the lifetime of Christianity, Jesus was more often seen and referred to as the Son of God.
On the surface, this question looks like a pop quiz by Jesus on his disciples. After wandering the countryside with him they should know who he is. In fact, they do know who he is. In their minds he’s still the stone worker’s Joseph’s son called Joshua (or Jesus), his mother is Mary and he had brothers and sisters. When asked, the disciples offer a number of identities for the son of man: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, and so on. Then he got with his comrades and asked: who do you say I am? Silence except for Peter who answered, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.” That was the answer Jesus was looking for. From then on Simon had the nickname, Rocky. Why was identity so important to Jesus? In the Mediterranean region where Galilee and Judea are located your identity comes from your family, and for boys, especially your father. This is hard for us to comprehend in a time and place where we carve out our own identities. My father was a buyer for a large company. My brother trained as a teacher. I was a teacher and a preacher. In Galilee and Judea boys were supposed to be a chip off the old block. You could not be the Messiah unless people understood your new identity. If he was to have an affect on change, he needed to be seen as the Messiah, and others needed to reflect that view. Do you remember Luke’s gospel account (verse 4) of Jesus returning to Nazareth after he had been away a considerable amount of time? In fact, he was hardly recognized by the locals. 16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me…” He then informed them that God’s Spirit was on him. That caused considerable angst amount the locals who said aloud, Isn’t that Joseph’s son? “All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.” A prophet is never recognized in his home town. Jesus could not be the Messiah with that hometown identity. Another reason for changing his identity is what people thought of his home town. Nazareth for most people was a little by-way village on the edge of Galilee. In (John’s gospel 1: 45-46) Philip (he was the Greek disciple) went and found Nathanael and told him, “We’ve found the One Moses wrote of in the Law, the one preached by the prophets. It’s Jesus, Joseph’s son, the one from Nazareth!” Nathanael said, “Nazareth? You’ve got to be kidding.” But Philip said, “Come, see for yourself.” With all this going against him, including his clouded parentage and birth, Jesus needed this new identity.
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AuthorI'm Rev. Dr. Pirie Mitchell and I live in Ontario, Canada. Archives
May 2023
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